1. Field of Invention
This present invention relates to wheeled transporters for sailboards and surfboards and more specifically to transporters which are collapsible and easily convertible from one manually towed by a person walking into one trailered behind a bicycle.
2. Description of Prior Art
The task of transporting bulky sailboards and surfboards and their related equipment to the waters edge has burdened sailboard and surfboard enthusiasts as long as the sports themselves have been enjoyed. Multiple trips carrying various sail and surf peripheries are often made from the car or home to the beach. Various means for transporting sailboards and surfboards by a person towing a wheeled device behind them or trailering such a device behind a bicycle over land, across beaches and to the water's edge in a single trip have been suggested.
One problem with the prior art is the necessity of a long one-piece mast (used in windsurfing to give vertical support to the sail) for use as a handle for manual towing and for use as a hitch arm for towing a board behind a bicycle. Reference Wind Surfing Magazine's May 1991 Volume 10, Issue 3, page 112 advertisement for Vogel Enterprises', Vogel Llama device. Todays common windsurfing equipment uses multi-piece masts most of which disassemble in tension as would happen while towing or trailering, hence making this art unusable for towing or trailering all boards because the mast will disassemble.
Storage of the board dolly itself in the trunks of cars or in homes when not in use is difficult with the prior art. Some prior art have wheel assemblies which are semi-permanent requiring hand tools to remove them. Tools are required to remove the wheels of present dollies, hence making stowage in homes, autos, and at the beach a burden. Also, the prior art, with fixed wheel assemblies in place, does not allow the user to place the board with the dolly attached onto a car roof rack without the use of hand tools to remove the wheels.
Heretofore, hitches for trailering devices behind bicycles have required arms from the towed device to reach the frame of the bicycle. This is displayed in the child carriages seen towed behind bicycles. These trailered devices require bends in the tow arm for ideal in-line towing. A need hence exists for an independently mounted bicycle hitch. Such a hitch will receive a variety of trailered devices, in addition to my board dolly, with no custom reach required of my devices' tow arm.
Some prior art for wheeled transporters require the user to lift the board or canoe and additional gear and balance them during setup and while in transit as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,127 to Stamm. Kickstands have been proposed but become ineffective due to penetration and, hence, tipping in sand and grass as used in U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,803 to Garcia.
Additionally, some dolly main wheel support assembly frames are very complex to manufacture and assemble and require a large amount of volume for storage when not in use as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,829 to Horowitz.
Some prior art attach the board and miscellaneous gear to a main wheeled support device. They, by design, strap around the center to rear of the board as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,802 to Morgan. When pulling on the front of the board the main support devices and some handle devices or straps tend to slip or work their way off due to the progressively decreasing girth of the board as measured from center to rear. All board girths decrease from the center forward and center rearward by design. Hence, the wheeled device or handle loosens and pulls off resulting in a dolly which cannot maneuver or articulate the board as the user pulls it after prolonged use.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,733,905 to Buickerood et al and 4,792,072 to Gibson show various types of dollies for carrying boards or other articles.
Although various prior patents and devices advertised in magazines perform the task of transporting boards they are large, heavy, expensive for consumers, cumbersome to maneuver and store, difficult to set-up, and complex and difficult to manufacture.